THE CTS COMPANION TO PRAYER
All booklets are published thanks to the generous support of the members of the Catholic Truth Society
CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE
3
C ONTENTS Introduction.......................................................................5 Prayer in the Christian Life...............................................7 Journey into Prayer .........................................................13 Prayer in a Busy Life ......................................................25 Contemplative Meditation for All...................................39 Prayer: God in All Things...............................................53 Unanswered Prayer .........................................................61 Notes on Prayer...............................................................73 Prayer: Being open to God..............................................81
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many of the items here have been published previously by the CTS and are included for their enduring quality. The CTS acknowledges with gratitude the authors including Delia Smith (Journey into Prayer), Gerard Hughes SJ (God in all things), Bishop John Crowley (Prayer in a busy life), Fr Matthew (Contemplative Meditation), C.L.Basevi (Unanswered Prayer), R.F.Clarke SJ (Notes on Prayer) and Peter Knott SJ (Open to God). A principal reference point throughout has been the new Catechism of the Catholic Church.
5
INTRODUCTION There are so many books about prayer! So many courses, lectures, schools and types. Prayer, we can think, is really the reserved for those who are more serious about God, about their faith. It is a point of arrival. But as for me where can I begin? Well, even to have asked these questions at all reflects a stirring in the heart and surely the One who has started this questioning, this longing deep within you will help you to respond to it. St Augustine says that our hearts will never be at rest until we have found Christ himself. The journey into prayer, to learn how to pray surely starts here. Again, many people say that prayer is a battle. If that is the case, then we need to know what prayer is, and what it is not. Is it just psychological activity, searching for a mental void, ritual words and postures - which we can’t find time for anyway? So many seem to give up, quickly discouraged. Prayer takes time - where can it fit in to my world? This modest Companion gathers together a small body of thoughtful, practical and succinct writings about prayer, within the every day life of a Christian disciple.
6
THE CTS COMPANION
TO
PRAYER
Our hope is that it will introduce you to prayer: help you to respond to a deep longing within you, and set you off on a journey with Christ to the house of your Father.
7
PRAYER IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE It is true that the Christian is called to pray at all times, but the starting point is at least that we pray or want to pray at specific times. In the new Catechism the Church speaks beautifully of this aspect of the Christian’s vocation. Prayer is something that can animate us at every moment, it is the life of the ‘new heart’ - the life of a disciple who has encountered the risen Christ. Such a person, says St Augustine, can sing a ‘new’ song, not only with new words, but with a new way of living, a new hope, a new way of approaching even death itself. St Gregory said ‘We must remember God more often than we draw breath’. For this reason the Church encourages us towards certain rhythms of praying such as morning prayers and evening prayers, grace before meals, the Angelus, the Divine office, Sundays and the Sunday Eucharist. Even the liturgical year, with its seasons and feasts, has a basic rhythm that is easily identified and followed.
The battle of Prayer However, the Scriptures, the Gospels, the writings of the saints and of the Church all agree on one basic point:
8
THE CTS COMPANION
TO
PRAYER
prayer is above all a battle. This may not be the language of today - a battle? But against what, and against whom? While prayer can certainly be understood as a gift from God, it is also an effort on our part. The battle is against ourselves, our nature and against the Tempter, Satan, who works hard to turn us away from prayer and from contact with God our true father. The Christian's calling to a new life in Christ involves a spiritual battle that is inseparable from this battle of prayer.
Objections Starting out on this journey, it is important to discover as early on as possible the erroneous notions that we, and many others, have of prayer. For example, many see prayer as just psychological activity. Others see it as an effort of concentration to reach a mental void, a nirvana. A very great many of us see prayer as something, which, even if desirable and worthwhile, is simply incompatible with our busy lives: we just do not have time. Again many of us do not truly realise that prayer comes as a gift from God, from the Holy Spirit, and we are so quickly discouraged when we are unable to have it on our own strength. Further, the mentality of the world in which we live and move frequently militates against prayer and this way of being can infiltrate our way of living. In a world of science and reason where does prayer fit in? Prayer takes
THE CTS COMPANION
TO
PRAYER
9
time and is not something obviously ‘productive’ and therefore it may make little sense to those who value efficiency, production and profit - for in the end time is money. The world in which the Christian dwells is apt to see prayer as mere escapism, a running away from the world itself. In reality of course prayer is none of these but a precious key to discovering the value and meaning of life - life in this world. Then there is another matter. We have to be able to face our own ‘failure’ in prayer arising from the discouragement we experience during periods of ‘dryness’, our ‘sadness’ at our unchanging selfishness. We have to face moments when we become fed up because we cannot merit the gift of prayer, which is a free gift; moments when we are disappointed at our sins. What of those prayers that go unanswered? What then, we ask, is the good of praying? Like the many, many generations that have preceded us, to win our battle we need to learn humility, trust and perseverance.
Types of prayer Vocal prayer was often used by Christ in the Gospels. It is essential for us to express with words what is in our hearts. Our vocal prayer depends far more on our disposition, on what is in our hearts, than number of words. Such sincere prayer rising from the depths of our
10
THE CTS COMPANION
TO
PRAYER
spirit answers God’s wish for a people who worship in Spirit and Truth. Meditation is, if you like, a step further, when we seek to go deeper into understanding the Christian vocation. It is not easy and the Gospels, Sacred Scripture, icons, holy writings, spiritual reading and the rosary, for example, all help us to face up to this vocation and to meditate on it and upon Him who lies at its centre, Christ. Sincerity, humility and faithfulness in meditation combine to produce a treasure of very great value: Christian discernment. This in turn strengthens our faith and our will to follow Christ. Contemplation again is in a sense something different. Once, it is said, the French Saint, the Cure d’Ars, asked a peasant regularly sitting before the tabernacle why he did so. He received the reply ‘I look at him and he looks at me’. This helps to define contemplative prayer. It is the prayer of the forgiven sinner welcoming that love and wanting to love others as he has been loved. It is a poor and humble surrender to the will of a loving Father, a gift, a grace from God - a covenant God seals in our hearts. St Theresa of Avila said contemplation was ‘a close sharing between friends, taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us’. It is inner prayer fixed on the Lord himself and we undertake it by making time for it, no matter whatever trial or dryness comes. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, his gaze purifies our heart,
THE CTS COMPANION
TO
PRAYER
11
illumines our heart and teaches us the truth. And so we learn to love and to follow Him.
Distractions and temptations Distractions are a common difficulty and they reveal what we are attached to. They are overcome by learning humility and vigilance, learning to live in the ‘today’. Feelings of being separated from God, ‘dryness’, need to be met with perseverance, conversion, and faith to cling faithfully to Christ. Prayer can be drowned out by our many cares. Then we begin to learn an important lesson: who do we really love?
Trust and love The answer to our complaints that our prayers are never heard is not to stop praying, but rather that we dwell more deeply on our attitude to prayer and to God himself. The heart of prayer is trust, as a son has in his father, a trust that seeks only what pleases the father. When we pray, who are we seeking to please? Trust is to rest on God’s action in history, in my own personal history, to rest on the plans of the Father for his son - as Christ himself did.
13
JOURNEY INTO PRAYER Delia Smith
Simplicity If I were to be given just one word with which to communicate the seemingly complicated subject of prayer, the word I would choose is simplicity. Simplicity is the key that opens the door of obscurity to let in the clear breeze of God’s wisdom and refresh our jaded minds. It is on just such a refreshing note that the author of the Book of Wisdom opens: ‘Seek the Lord in simplicity of heart, since he is to be found by those who do not put him to the test’. There, in a nutshell, is the whole subject of prayer. If we are seeking God with that purely simplicity of heart, then we are utterly sure of finding him. Wasn’t that his great promise to us: ‘Those who seek always find’ (Lk 11)? As we seek him, so shall we find him in the same measure, and finding him we shall come to know him - not in a vague, notional way but in a deepening, intimate way. Prayer, then, is a journey into faith, a faith which grows and develops along the way like (to use the
14
THE CTS COMPANION
TO
PRAYER
familiar metaphor) the tiny seed hidden in the earth and growing in darkness: though we do not see it, we await its blossoming. As the measure of our knowing God increases, so does our faith; and as we know him so we learn to trust him. The pinnacle of faith is total trust, and anyone who has scaled this pinnacle has found heaven on earth, because the fruit of total trust is ‘the peace that passes all understanding’.
On a Journey In the office of readings for Lent the Church reminds us of this spiritual journey to which we are all individually called by following the great Exodus story. For that is a journey of faith we can follow today: we are called out of slavery into the wilderness of faith, we learn to confront our enemies and trust in the God who goes before us to the promised land of peace. In that stubborn band of Hebrews we can see ourselves, often incredulous, too easily content to live with oppression rather than risk the journey. Their journey, like ours, was filled with mistakes and failures and painfully highlighted the limits of human nature. Yet at the same time, what hope this story holds out! In it we can see how God deals with our incapacity. When they failed to believe, and failed to trust, he tried again. His relentless love reaches out to draw us into a
THE CTS COMPANION
TO
PRAYER
15
relationship. Listen how clearly scripture describes his role in that journey: ‘In the waste lands (unbelief) he adopts us; in the lowly deserts of the wilderness (our darkness) he protects us, rears us, guards us as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle watching its nest, hovering over its young, he spreads out his wings to hold us and support us’ (Dt 32). The spiritual journey is one in which we learn by experience how to grasp this love with certainty. But we can only arrive at that point if we have the will to make the journey at all. However inadequate we feel, somewhere deep within us we must want to make it.
Learning Of course, like the Hebrews, we lack faith - but note: they only learn on the way. It is only the experience of the reality of God’s promise that fortifies them in faith in spite of repeated failures. When we have seen the Red Sea parted - or something similar - in our own lives, only then can we grasp God’s power and learn to trust. God sent Moses as mediator between him and his people, but in our age he has come himself. By sharing our pain and frustrations and helplessness, and by knowing what human sorrow is, Jesus teaches us as we are and where we are. His words to one who was about to embark on this journey are words for each of us: ‘If
16
THE CTS COMPANION
TO
PRAYER
you only knew what God is offering, and who it is who asks you ...!’ Like the Hebrews, and the woman at the well, we cannot know until we start and learn to know who Jesus is and what he is offering. The woman at the well takes the first step by making a decision: ‘Give me some water’. That’s our decision too. Do we want to know God? Do we want to receive what he is offering? Will we follow him like the sheep in John 10, who learn to ‘know’ his voice? Will we allow him to lead us across the desert of our lives?
What Jesus says Jesus’s own explanation to his disciples says a great deal to me about the nature of prayer: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home in him’. If anyone loves me: this is the decision for God. Love is not a way of feeling but a commitment, a twoway commitment, a covenant relationship as it was on Mount Sinai. And we shall come to him: Prayer is not something achieved by our own effort but something received once we have made the commitment. And make our home in him: By desiring God, by listening to his word and allowing it to penetrate, I am
THE CTS COMPANION
TO
PRAYER
17
opening myself to that encounter where my spirit is touched by the spirit of the living God himself - so that I gradually become infused with his own life. It is a process enshrined in that most beautiful of prayers, ‘Come Holy Spirit and enkindle in me the fire of your love’. Then each individual life that surrenders to this journey, this process of becoming infused with the life of God, becomes part of his new creation which furthers the renewal of the face of the earth and the coming of his kingdom.
True Prayer True prayer isn’t possible unless there comes a moment in our lives when we consciously choose to want to know God. Like the woman at the well, we may not know exactly what we want, but somewhere deep within us we turn towards him for the answer. The simple truth is that God created you because he wanted you exactly as you are, and, as you are, to have a relationship with you. In this relationship we start out, in Paul’s descriptive words, as empty vessels. But that empty vessel, which is me, has unlimited capacity because my life - again in Paul’s words - has the capacity (if I enter that relationship) to be filled with the utter ‘fullness of God’. This is what we need to grasp if we are going to look at the roots of what eventually becomes a decision for
Prayer during the Day Elegant leatherette pocket book of prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. Ideal for use at home, in families, in the parish or in communities. Prayer during the Day comes between Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. It offers us a time of peace to turn our minds and hearts to God in the midst of our day’s duties and preoccupations. Prayer During the Day uses the standard Grail Psalms, and is presented as elegant pocket book with the full text for each day, and guidance for those unfamiliar with praying the Prayer of the Church. Aids to examination of conscience are included, as are a small selection of additional prayers. You will find praying with these books a deeply rewarding way to mark the passing of the day, whether you pray individually or communally.
ISBN: 978 1 86082 560 6 CTS Code: D 705
Night Prayer Elegant leatherette pocket book of prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. Ideal for use at home, in families, in the parish or in communities. Night Prayer is the last and shortest of these Hours, and is usually said just before going to bed. Night Prayer uses the standard Grail Psalms, and is presented as elegant pocket book with the full text for each day, and guidance for those unfamiliar with praying the Prayer of the Church. Aids to examination of conscience are included, as are a small selection of additional prayers. You will find praying with these books a deeply rewarding way to mark the passing of the day, whether you pray individually or communally.
ISBN: 978 1 86082 559 0 CTS Code: D 704
A Simple Prayer Book CTS’s best selling prayer book of all time, revised and updated in 2005, in 3 main sections: Prayer and Devotions; The Eucharist; Catholic Teaching. Contains 1) a wide range of prayers and devotions: basic prayers, morning and evening prayers, to the Holy Spirit, penitential prayers, Way of the Cross, to Our Lady, for various needs and occasions, the Divine mercy; 2) the complete text of the Order of Holy Mass; 3) a summary of Catholic Doctrine, Rule of Christian Life, Explanation of the Mass, and of Marriage.
ISBN: 978 1 86082 259 9 CTS Code: D 665
Companion to Praying with the Bible For many the Bible remains a closed book, inaccessible, difficult to understand or study. In this Companion, Fr Mattam opens up a whole range of possibilities. The Bible, he says, is not meant to be dissected rationally, but is a book to be approached with reverence and humility, and listened to with humble gratitude for through it God calls us to a deep personal relationship with him. Using the Bible, this Companion teaches us to pray the Psalms, the Our Father, the Prayer of the Heart. Above all it shows us how to Read, Meditate, Pray, Contemplate, Scrutinise and Study the Scriptures.
ISBN: 978 1 86082 057 1 CTS Code: Do 655
b. Companion to Prayer_b. CTS Companion to Prayer 19/02/2014 10:17 Page 96
A world of Catholic reading at your fingertips ...
CTS ... now online Browse 500 titles at
www.cts-online.org.uk Catholic Faith, Life, and Truth for all
CTS